City budget battle continues

The city of Jacksonville's budget season is already starting with frustrated city leaders and talk of major cuts to every department. Mayor Alvin Brown presented his budget today calling 61-million dollars in cuts, which includes a 14-percent cut from every department. That could include cuts to the Jacksonville sheriff's office. Channel 4's Scott Johnson has visited some neighborhoods that have had recent police activity to find out how residents feel about that.

3 Mayor Alvin Brown presented his budget proposal to the city council today as he hopes pension reform would offset a huge projected deficit. So far though - that has not happened. The total plan calls for 953 million dollars in spending.. But that includes 61 million in cuts ..to balance the budget. Those cuts would close some city pools, community centers and libraries... Along with 3-fire stations. Layoffs also loom for city employees - including the sheriff's office. 3 There are some issue with the budget that we are going to have to tackle. Namely some very large extraordinary lapses which are holes in the budget which has been allocated primary to the sheriffs officeTax increases are not the solution deep spending cuts are not the solution . the solution is reform we must reform our cities retirement system This is our biggest challenge . The city of Jacksonville's budget season is already starting with frustrated city leaders and talk of major cuts to every department. Mayor Alvin Brown presented his budget today calling 61-million dollars in cuts... which includes a 14-percent cut from every department. That could include cuts to the Jacksonville sheriff's office. Channel 4's scott johnson has visited some neighborhoods that have had recent police activity to find out how residents feel about that. :00-:05:38-:431:00-1:051:37- 1:42 COVER THIS SOT WITH TIM DOING LAWN WORK 13:54:09 - I moved here may first.tim townsend just moved to this neighborhood that sits sandwiched where avondale meets the westside. He came here from tampa. 13:54:12 - 'were you surprised to hear about the shootings?' yes, in this area I was. so Townsend was stunned to see the news last week of a shooting at a nearby restaurant and pharmacy then the next day police shot the suspect. And this weekend two brothers were shot and killed at a golden corral a few miles away... so you can imagine his response to the other news item of the day ... that mayor alvin brown is proposing deep budget cuts of 14-percent that could affect police.TIM TOWNSEND/JUST MOVED TO JACKSONVILLE 13:53:39 - watching the news and coming from another place, I thought I was coming to a safe place... it's not a good thing to take police out of communities. It's just not.a number of his neighbors feel the same way. PATRICIA MOORE/CONCERNED ABOUT BUDGET CUTS 13:57:50 - I wanna' feel safe in my own home and I want police around to let criminals know theyr'e being watched.the jury's still out on what the cuts will mean... members of the city council has criticized the mayor's budget that calls for 14-percent cuts across the board... with equal cuts at police and lesser utilized departments.Sheriff john rutherford says he refuses to cut cops...but as of now the budget will need to be cut short of a pension deal being reached.One thing mayor alvin brown says he refuses to do is raise taxes ... which I found doesn't totally turn off every homeowner.MYRA KREMER/WESTSIDE RESIDENTS 13:56:34 - I think the mayor should look back at if people were willing to pay more property taxes. 'you would be willing? If it kept you safe, you would be willing?' oh yeah, yeah. I don't mind paying my fair share. 3 Budget Budget delibrations pick up next week. The city must have a

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